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The German magazine Der Spiegel published following story 6.18..

An African Dream
 
"I'll Make it to Europe, or Die Trying"

Africans looking to leave the continent for Europe face a long journey across the Atlantic in rickety boats. Many don't make it. But that doesn't deter the thousands looking for a better life.

Henry Mafarna was still a child when he lost his home -- barely 14 years old. Militias swept through Liberia in 1990 and the West African country was torn apart by civil war. In the ensuing chaos, Mafarna, who is now 29, lost track of his parents. Today, he has no idea whether they are still alive.

Ever since then, Mafarna has been a refugee -- sometimes staying in refugee camps, sometimes finding shelter with relatives in neighboring countries. But he hasn't stayed anywhere for long. Confused and restless, he has moved frequently. But one goal has remained constant -- he has repeatedly tried to find a way to leave Africa.

For the last six months, Mafarna has been in Nouadhibou, at the northern tip of Mauritania for what he hopes will be the last leg of his trip. Last month, he was planning on squeezing into the hull of a small boat under cover of darkness. The boat, he was hoping, would take him to the Canary Islands -- some 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) into the Atlantic Ocean -- where he planned to start a new life. "I've got just two options," he said. "I'll either make it to Europe or die trying."

No future in Africa

He's got no future in Africa, he says. "There's no education system, no work -- just violence." Yet all his efforts to leave the continent have so far failed. He tried applying for an Australian visa; later he tried his luck with the Canadian visa program. But he was rejected every time. "There are just too many people who want to get out of here," he says with resignation. "I don't know anyone who wants to stay."

Henry is just one of thousands of African refugees waiting to travel from Mauritania on the west coast of Africa to Europe. His story is like that of many others living in the refugee slums of Nouadhibou -- a life of war and poverty, without any future to look forward to. In the end all that remains is despair -- a despair that makes people willing to risk everything. Even the last thing they own: their lives.

Africa's west coast has become the new gateway to Europe.
Henry has worked hard to earn his ticket to the future. Every day he joins other men from Senegal, Mali and Guinea in front of the entrance to the harbor. They stand around waiting for the next small job: It could be a job on a construction site or one helping a fisherman unload his boat. No one earns more than $3 a day -- usually less. Henry generally most of a day's wages just to pay for his shabby room. The rest he saves for his risky trip to Europe. The $600 he's managed to ferret away so far, he reckons, should be enough.

Men like Henry are willing to run any risk at all. A man from Senegal lives not far from his little wooden shed. He's already tried to reach the Canary Islands once, but the Moroccan harbor patrol stopped him a short distance from the island of Lanzarote. A few hours later, the haggard man was back in Nouadhibou. He's working again, saving money for his next attempt.

"It was hell out there"

Many others die chasing their European dream across the rough waters of the Atlantic. Those who don't, experience a nightmarish journey they're unlikely ever to forget. "People started to vomit shortly before we left the coast," the Senegalese man remembers. Many of the travellers have never been on a boat before; the waves terrify them. "Less than an hour had gone by when the first people started screaming." People often needed to be punched before they quieted down, he said.

No one is allowed to stand up or lie down during the trip. Some 80 people are forced to sit closely side-by-side for three or four days, their knees and legs are soon covered in bruises. Their joints begin to ache. Salty seawater mixes with urine and feces, causing a painful burning sensation in open wounds. A terrible stench develops. "It was hell out there. All I did was pray it would be over soon," says the Senegalese man.

Even worse, the refugees never know exactly where they're going. Hours of darkness and cold are followed by days of hot, baking sunlight.

When the Moroccan police finally discovered the boat the Senegalese man was travelling on, most of his companions had been reduced to a state of mindless torpor. A number of them had to be taken to hospital, where they're still suffering from dehydration and panic attacks. The Senegalese man says he was glad the trip was over; he didn't care that he didn't make it to Europe.

Many refugees die of dehydration during the trip. Others drown in shipwrecks or are thrown overboard by other refugees. The Spanish and the Moroccan police find their corpses almost every day. Mohammed Wal, the chief of the nautical police, collects their photographs in his records. They're a chronicle of horror: deformed and bloated corpses, partly eaten by fish. The pictures are sorted by date. He adds new ones every day.

Good news by text messaging

The chief of police likes to present his pictures to foreign journalists. He would prefer showing them to the refugees living in Nouadhibou's slum neighborhoods. "Many people still aren't aware of the risk involved in crossing the ocean," he says. "They think of it as a day trip." He says he's powerless to prevent further boats leaving the port, meaning his gruesome documentation is sure to continue growing.

Henry Mafarna knows the horrible stories and he's seen the pictures on the Internet. But he's still able to exude forced optimism. "I have no choice but to try," he says. "I promised my son I would."

Macpena, Mafarna's son, is 14 months old and lives in Guinea with his mother. Mafarna has decided he's going to take a picture of the curly-haired boy with him on the trip -- nothing else. If he doesn't survive the trip to Europe, Macpena's mother will never mention Henry. That's the deal he made when he left.

But Henry doesn't want to think about death. "Many people make it," he says. Some boats do indeed arrive. As soon as they reach the other shore, they send SMS text messages to those still waiting to make the trip. The news travels like wildfire in the slum where Henry lives.

"Even if I have to live on the streets in Europe, even if people there look down on me, it can't be any worse than here," Henry says. When night begins to fall, he proposes a bet. He asks me to give him my e-mail address. "I'll write to you from Spain," he says grinning, "and then you have to come and visit."

So far, he hasn't written.

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The Israeli Yedioth Achronoth, Ynet, reported yesterday following about the stupid thing I uploaded about 24 hours ago..

Iran: Yellow badge report false

Iranian lawmakers hurried to disavow a report that the Muslim country would enforce a dress code requiring Jews to where a yellow armband; Iranian Jewish MP: The report damaged Jewish image in Iran

Iranian officials adamantly denied on Saturday reports claiming that the Muslim state was passing a law that would require minority members to identify themselves with various colored armbands – and, reminiscent of the Holocaust, Jews would be forced to wear yellow badges.  
Iranian expatriates claim that ‘National Uniform Law’ authorized by Iranian parliament includes clause obligating Iranian Jews to wear yellow ribbon; Christians, other minority members to wear colored ribbons as well. ‘If law passes non-Muslims’ lives will become intolerable   
“The dress code program being discussed in parliament has no relation to religious minorities. These reports are a flat out lie,” says Iranian lawmaker Imad Efrog, who proposed the “National Uniform Law.”

On Friday the Canadian Newspaper National Post reported that Jews would have to wear yellow armbands, based on the claims of Iranian expatriates living in Canada. Shortly after the article was printed, the newspaper backed off from the report and published a second article expressing reservations about the report’s credibility. However, the flames were already ignited as the story quickly spread around world news media.

Efrog, who apparently also read Israel and the world’s heated reactions to the report, told Canadian newspaper The Calgary Sun Saturday to tell the west to check their information on the law first, “and you will see there are no conditions for religious minorities in Iran.”

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa, Hormoz Ghahremani, sent an email to the Canada’s National Post Friday to “categorically reject the news item.”

“These kinds of slanderous accusations are part of a smear campaign against Iran by vested interests, which needs to be denounced at every step,” Ghahremani wrote.

Representative of Iran’s 25,000 Jews in the nation’s parliament, Maurice Motamed, the only Jewish MP there, told the western press that the report dealt a severe blow to the Jewish image in Iran. “I was there when they discussed the law, and it was about the dress of Iranian Muslim women. Restrictions for minority or other religions were not mentioned,” Motamed said.

Jerusalem Post wrote this..

Iran bill addresses women's clothing

So, as I wrote yesterday the entire thing could be also just a fake..

...but on the other side yesterdays Guardian, GB, wrote this..

Iranian Law Would Encourage Islamic Dress

A draft law being considered by Iran's parliament encourages the wearing of Islamic clothing to protect the country's Muslim identity, according to a copy of the bill obtained by The Associated Press on Saturday.

The 13-article bill, which received preliminary approval a week ago, does not mention requiring special attire for religious minorities.

On Friday, the Canadian newspaper The National Post, quoting Iranian exiles, said the law would force Jews, Christians and other religious minorities to wear special patches of colored cloth to distinguish them from Muslims.

...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5834371,00.html

Finally, what is the moral of this story...

NEVER TRUST THE bourgeois MEDIA!!

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Yesterday IHT reported following.. Governments alert to possible North Korean missile activity

North Korea has reportedly moved a ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States to a launching site, but officials in Seoul and Tokyo said they saw no reliable signs that the North intended to test the missile soon.   Such a test would aggravate Pyongyang's relations with Japan and the United States, among others. Experts said that North Korean long-range missiles could deliver small warheads containing chemical and biological weapons, but that the North had not yet mastered the technology to fit its missiles with nuclear warheads.   North Korea last tested a ballistic missile in 1998. Although analysts in the region doubt that Pyongyang would risk economic sanctions and other fallout from Washington and Tokyo with a missile test, it might make preparations for a launch - under full surveillance by U.S. military satellites - to rattle nerves in the region and force American concessions in its confrontation with Washington.   A Defense Ministry official in Seoul, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the government was trying to verify reports about the Taepodong-2 missile.   "So far there is not enough credibility" in the reports, he said, without giving further details.   Earlier Friday, NHK television and the Kyodo News Agency in Japan, citing unnamed sources, said that movement had been observed near a missile base in northeastern North Korea since early this month.   South Korean news media later cited unnamed government officials as saying that they, too, detected such activities but that there was no sign of an imminent test.   Foreign Minister Taro Aso of Japan told a parliamentary committee in Tokyo that Japanese officials "understand that a missile has been brought to the site."   Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Shinzo Abe, said: "At this point we do not feel there is imminent danger of a missile launch," adding that Japan had been gathering intelligence.   American experts said that the Taepodong-2 ballistic missile has a range of more than 6,700 kilometers, or 4,200 miles, making it capable of hitting Alaska with a light payload.   A different version of the Taepodong- 2, which U.S. experts have said was also under development, has a range of 15,000 kilometers, enough to reach the U.S. mainland.   North Korea shocked Japan in 1998 by launching a Taepodong-1 missile over its territory and into the Pacific. That missile had a range of up to 4,000 kilometers, and may be capable of reaching some islands in the Hawaiian chain, as well as U.S. military bases in the region.   The United States and North Korea have been locked in a standoff over the North's nuclear weapons programs. Washington has been increasing financial pressure on the isolated North to force it to return to nuclear disarmament talks, but the North has so far resisted such attempts, which it considers an effort to topple its Communist regime.   On Thursday, The New York Times reported that top advisers to President George W. Bush were considering ways to improve relations with North Korea, including talks for a peace treaty with Pyongyang, once it returns to international talks on ending its nuclear weapons program.   In a report in March, the California- based Center for Nonproliferation Studies, a nongovernmental organization, said North Korea did not have an operational missile that could hit the continental United States, and nor had it demonstrated the capability to make a nuclear weapon small enough to be part of a missile warhead.   "North Korea would probably require several years and additional flight-tests to develop a reliable ballistic missile system capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the continental United States," the report said. http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/19/news/missile.php

But perhaps it will be just a welcome present for DJ Kim, when he will visit the DPRK next month... harrharr.. WHO KONWS........